They are trying to pull the same "PRIATIZE IT!!!" bullsh*t the Repubs are doing to the USPS. Thing is people talk about how rural areas in the US wouldn't get serviced by the courier companies because they would lose money. Now multiply that by a jallion in the barren wasteland that is 99.9% of Canuckerland.

guys freakin sidewalk is sinking. He needs to figure out why and get that fixed, the sooner the better. until then. put a mailbox on a post right beside the sidewalk or golly gee... put a two inch step in.

I totally agree with them not delivering its a hazard and a freaking hate unions.

b-maz:Solution, put a mail box next to the planter. Unless the postie deems the reach too far and dangerous.

/Never use CP if I can help it.

I believe TFA says they moved the mailbox, but now walking the steps is a hardship for the resident and they dont like the postal carrier walking across their lawn. Lemme go get my tiny violin...cause every player in this story is being asked to endure insufferable agony.

/I'm sure there are thick ass welcome mats that could tempoarily fix the whole problem

The bottom step is 14 inches while the second step appears to be less than 10? Guy probably should have hired a professional instead of doing it yourself. But from the looks of the picture, he purposely made the bottom step lower so he could sit on it when he's outside.

The homeowner moved the mailbox and then told the mail carrier not to walk on his lawn? Screw him. My mailman walks on the front lawn every single day when going house to house. I don't have a mailbox by the curb and am pretty damn happy he drops the mail inside the front screen door daily. After years of walking across the lawn, do you know the damage my mailman has caused? That's right... none.

The bottom step is 14 inches while the second step appears to be less than 10? Guy probably should have hired a professional instead of doing it yourself. But from the looks of the picture, he purposely made the bottom step lower so he could sit on it when he's outside.

I didn't read the whole article. Did he actually form it himself? It looks more like one of those prefabbed jobs they drop into place. You're supposed to bury the bottom step more than that... in fact you can kind of see the line where it's supposed to be buried up to. Looks like he could have gotten a 4 stepper instead of a 3 stepper.

BunkyBrewman:The homeowner moved the mailbox and then told the mail carrier not to walk on his lawn? Screw him. My mailman walks on the front lawn every single day when going house to house. I don't have a mailbox by the curb and am pretty damn happy he drops the mail inside the front screen door daily. After years of walking across the lawn, do you know the damage my mailman has caused? That's right... none.

Posties everywhere are the same. In Santa Fe, NM, one mail carrier won't deliver unless the screen door and main door are closed when a dog in in the house, and the dog's bark is not aggressive. They'll threaten to sue. It really makes me question why I support the USPS in their attempts to survive congress' attempts to bankrupt them.

booger42:One behalf of the Commonwealth of Canada, I would like to apologize.

You say that now but I just know later you'll be at Timmies saying crap like "That here to help, guy is like a total hoser, eh? I like told him I was sorry, guy but joke's on him. I'm totally not letting him borrow my skidoo to go ice fishing next winter."

So far, in 8 years of having rural to-side-of-road mailbox delivery we have had exactly NONE of these issues. That is until 2 weeks ago when apparently a supervisor did a round around the circuit. For 8 years the mailman would always wave and say hi whenever he could (80km/h zone, so loud).

My mailbox is literally touching my neighbours (only 2 of them in that row). They are off-set by <2 inches at the front-flap. Yep, got an issuance to move it 2 inches forward into perfect line with neighbour.

First one in 8 years. Hoping it's just an overzealous super new to the jorb. Sigh.

Go Canada, where if you live in Ottawa, you still address by pre-amalgamation burrows since the city is too cheap to pay to have the address-space organized. Seriously, in the Snowy North (tm) capital we have such duplicity of addresses by road name it's silly. Not to mention more farm-land than some African countries. I mean we have a farm not 5km away from parliament buildings. With cows and everything!

This always makes me laugh. "My dog wouldn't hurt anybody." That might be the case, but how the f*ck is the postal carrier supposed to know that? Smart people treat dogs as potentially aggressive unless proven otherwise.

outtatowner:So far, in 8 years of having rural to-side-of-road mailbox delivery we have had exactly NONE of these issues. That is until 2 weeks ago when apparently a supervisor did a round around the circuit. For 8 years the mailman would always wave and say hi whenever he could (80km/h zone, so loud).

My mailbox is literally touching my neighbours (only 2 of them in that row). They are off-set by <2 inches at the front-flap. Yep, got an issuance to move it 2 inches forward into perfect line with neighbour.

First one in 8 years. Hoping it's just an overzealous super new to the jorb. Sigh.

Go Canada, where if you live in Ottawa, you still address by pre-amalgamation burrows since the city is too cheap to pay to have the address-space organized. Seriously, in the Snowy North (tm) capital we have such duplicity of addresses by road name it's silly. Not to mention more farm-land than some African countries. I mean we have a farm not 5km away from parliament buildings. With cows and everything!

//end csb

Hey now, if they change the address space, I can see my neighbours organizing a de-amalgamation bid. It's bad enough that all the farms around here have "Carleton County - YES!" signs. I would like to keep my cheap-ass municipal bus service that goes out to the boonies.

here to help:booger42: One behalf of the Commonwealth of Canada, I would like to apologize.

You say that now but I just know later you'll be at Timmies saying crap like "That here to help, guy is like a total hoser, eh? I like told him I was sorry, guy but joke's on him. I'm totally not letting him borrow my skidoo to go ice fishing next winter."

Dick.

Sorry again - the wi-fi at this Tim's is spotty at best.

/wants one of them new fangled steath skidoo//and a large black with a Honey Glazed donut on the side, eh?

daisygrrl:outtatowner: So far, in 8 years of having rural to-side-of-road mailbox delivery we have had exactly NONE of these issues. That is until 2 weeks ago when apparently a supervisor did a round around the circuit. For 8 years the mailman would always wave and say hi whenever he could (80km/h zone, so loud).

My mailbox is literally touching my neighbours (only 2 of them in that row). They are off-set by <2 inches at the front-flap. Yep, got an issuance to move it 2 inches forward into perfect line with neighbour.

First one in 8 years. Hoping it's just an overzealous super new to the jorb. Sigh.

Go Canada, where if you live in Ottawa, you still address by pre-amalgamation burrows since the city is too cheap to pay to have the address-space organized. Seriously, in the Snowy North (tm) capital we have such duplicity of addresses by road name it's silly. Not to mention more farm-land than some African countries. I mean we have a farm not 5km away from parliament buildings. With cows and everything!

//end csb

Hey now, if they change the address space, I can see my neighbours organizing a de-amalgamation bid. It's bad enough that all the farms around here have "Carleton County - YES!" signs. I would like to keep my cheap-ass municipal bus service that goes out to the boonies.

/Richmond represent!

Agreed, I too benefit greatly from the state of flux. For my property (Vernon-ish), land, house, amenities, et. al. I pay 1/3 of what the city people would pay just for the house AND about 1/2 of what the Stormont-Dundanites pay. I have been banned from mentioning my taxation rate (property) at dinner party lest I get stabbed next time.

The odd trim at the bottom is to hide either soil compression under the sidewalk or maybe frost heaving of the steps. In any case, he should have been given a chance to fix it with a warning first as he said. I suspect the mailman already had a dislike for this customer.

This always makes me laugh. "My dog wouldn't hurt anybody." That might be the case, but how the f*ck is the postal carrier supposed to know that? Smart people treat dogs as potentially aggressive unless proven otherwise.

But a dog behind a door is usually just shouting that there's someone behind my owner's door. It's not a life-threatening situation, unless of course, that the dog can open two sets of doors. Or has a bazooka.

r1niceboy:But a dog behind a door is usually just shouting that there's someone behind my owner's door. It's not a life-threatening situation, unless of course, that the dog can open two sets of doors. Or has a bazooka.

A screen door won't stop any but the smallest of dogs. I'm sure it's far less inconvenient for you to just shut your dog than it is for your mail carrier to wonder whether the dog is aggressive, and if so, whether the screen door is strong enough to hold it.

It's a reasonable policy, particularly when there are 500 or 1000 residences on a route.

Babwa Wawa:r1niceboy: But a dog behind a door is usually just shouting that there's someone behind my owner's door. It's not a life-threatening situation, unless of course, that the dog can open two sets of doors. Or has a bazooka.

A screen door won't stop any but the smallest of dogs. I'm sure it's far less inconvenient for you to just shut your dog than it is for your mail carrier to wonder whether the dog is aggressive, and if so, whether the screen door is strong enough to hold it.

It's a reasonable policy, particularly when there are 500 or 1000 residences on a route.

A screen door, the main door, both closed, AND the dog musn't bark? Gimme a break.

The bottom step is 14 inches while the second step appears to be less than 10? Guy probably should have hired a professional instead of doing it yourself. But from the looks of the picture, he purposely made the bottom step lower so he could sit on it when he's outside.

I also see no railing. He could put a couple patio stones at the bottom. Problem solved.

Now, I'm not sure what the douchebag to normal person ratio is, but I'm pretty sure that on every carrier route there's at least a dozen assholes who don't know how (or don't want) to control their dogs. Given the breadth of humanity that these people have to deal with, I'm going to give the mail carrier the ability to make reasonable judgments as to whether to approach a house that has a snarling dog. Particularly when considering that some people might be motivated to try to keep the mail carrier away.

Whether you agree with me on that or not, we can surely agree a screen door isn't a protection from anything but insects, right Just pretend it's not there, because nobody should have to trust it to stop a dog.

redmid17:I hate to agree with an old curmudgeon, but he's right. If you can't deal with an extra 2", you probably shouldn't be delivering mail.

It's not about the extra effort, it's about the unexpected step height. On steps with unusual heights, or stairways with uneven step heights (the stairs in question have both issues) falls are significantly more likely. Which is why we have codes about step height in the first place. The postal service shouldn't have to risk the safety of their employees just because this guy can't be bothered to install his stairs correctly.

The Ankh-Morpork Post Office in the great Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork is one of the models for this New York City Post Office Building. The inscription is a translation from Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian who was nicknamed "the Father of Liars" because of all the implausible stories he retailed.

Here is the quotation:

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.-Herodotus, Histories (8.98) (trans.

From Wikipedia, article on the "United States Postal Service Creed".

Rem.: The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto.

profplump:redmid17: I hate to agree with an old curmudgeon, but he's right. If you can't deal with an extra 2", you probably shouldn't be delivering mail.

It's not about the extra effort, it's about the unexpected step height. On steps with unusual heights, or stairways with uneven step heights (the stairs in question have both issues) falls are significantly more likely. Which is why we have codes about step height in the first place. The postal service shouldn't have to risk the safety of their employees just because this guy can't be bothered to install his stairs correctly.

I realize what the issue is. I wasn't talking about the extra effort. If even step heights throw you off that much, you should really look where you are walking or get a new job.